Answers that name a competitor

For a 3-person paid-ads agency on a tight budget, I’d avoid buying an expensive “full competitive intelligence” platform unless you have enough clients to justify it.

My pick: SpyFu + free ad libraries

SpyFu is probably the best cost-to-usefulness fit for you.

• Search/PPC: SpyFu is strong at competitor Google Ads research—paid keywords, ad history, estimated clicks/spend, competitors, and keyword overlap.
• Price: currently $39/mo month-to-month or $33/mo annually for Basic; there’s also a free tier with limited results. SpyFu
• Agency-friendly: You can use one relatively inexpensive research platform across multiple clients rather than buying a separate intelligence product for each.
• Big caveat: its spend numbers are estimates, not competitors' actual budgets.

Then supplement it with the Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency Center for free. Those are better for answering “what ads are they actually running?” than trying to infer everything from modeled spend.

If you need search + social spend in one dashboard

Similarweb is more compelling conceptually. Its Ad Intelligence can compare competitor Search, Display, and Social activity and provides estimated spend, impressions and visits; data is updated daily. Similarweb Support Similarweb Support

The problem for a small agency is cost/access. Similarweb's inexpensive self-service products don't necessarily give you the full depth of Ad Intelligence, while the more serious ad-data offerings can become a sales-led purchase. So I wouldn't make it your first buy unless cross-channel competitor budgeting is a core service you're selling.

What about Semrush?

Semrush is probably the best all-around platform, but I'd only choose it if you're going to use the broader Semrush ecosystem.

Its current Advertising Toolkit is:

• $99/mo Base — strong Google paid-search research, including competitor keywords, ads and estimated traffic cost.
• $220/mo Pro — adds AdClarity for display/video/social competitor campaigns and estimated expenditure. Semrush Semrush

Semrush's paid-search data is quite useful: you can see competitor paid keywords, ads, historical activity, estimated traffic and traffic cost, which is essentially its estimate of what the competitor would need to spend to buy that traffic. Semrush

The $220/mo Pro plan is overkill for a three-person agency on a tight budget, in my opinion.

My ranking for your situation

The setup I'd actually use

For your agency, I'd spend ~$35/month initially:

SpyFu → competitor search intelligence
Meta Ad Library → actual Meta creatives/campaign activity
Google Ads Transparency Center → actual Google advertiser creatives
Google Sheets → monthly competitor spend/creative tracker

And importantly, I'd track ranges/trends rather than pretending you know exact spend. Competitor-intelligence vendors model spend from things like observed ads, rankings, traffic, CPC, impressions and other signals. Even Similarweb explicitly describes its figures as tracked estimates rather than total spend. Similarweb Support

If you tell me roughly how many clients you manage and whether they're mostly B2B, ecommerce, or local businesses, I can narrow this down to the cheapest stack that gives you useful competitor spend + creative + keyword intelligence.

For a 3-person agency on a tight budget, I’d avoid the expensive “all-in-one competitive intelligence” platforms. The best setup is one inexpensive paid-search tool + the free ad libraries for social.

My pick: SpyFu + free platform libraries

spyfu.com is probably the best value for your situation.

• Google/Search: SpyFu estimates competitor PPC spend, paid keywords, clicks, CPCs, ad history, and budget changes over time. SpyFu Help Center SpyFu
• Price: currently $39/mo month-to-month or $33/mo billed annually for Basic. There's also a free tier for lightweight research. SpyFu
• Agency-friendly: you can search essentially unlimited domains/queries, rather than burning credits every time you investigate a prospect. SpyFu Help Center
• Historical data: useful for answering “are they actually increasing spend, or did we just happen to see them today?” SpyFu provides 10+ years of historical PPC data on paid plans. SpyFu

Then supplement it with the free ad transparency tools from Meta and Google for the social/creative side. Those are better for seeing what competitors are actually running than trying to infer a precise spend number.

If you want one paid tool that covers more channels

I'd look at semrush.com, particularly its Advertising Research + AdClarity capabilities.

Semrush's Advertising Research estimates paid-search traffic costs/spend and shows competitors' keywords, ads, landing pages and historical activity. Semrush Semrush Its AdClarity product extends competitive spend intelligence across display, social and video, with estimated spend trends by channel. Semrush

The catch: it's considerably harder to justify on a 3-person agency budget if competitor ad spend is the primary reason you're buying it.

How I'd rank them for you

One important caveat: competitor “ad spend” is an estimate, not their actual media invoice. Even Semrush explicitly recommends looking at spend trends rather than treating the absolute number as precise. Semrush

The lean agency stack I'd actually buy

$0: Meta Ad Library + Google Ads Transparency Center
~$33/mo: SpyFu Basic
Total: ~$33/month

Use SpyFu for “How aggressively are they buying search, and what keywords are they buying?” Then use the free libraries for “What creative/offers are they actually running on social?”

That gets you surprisingly far without paying for a $200–$500+/month intelligence platform.

If your agency is heavily Meta/TikTok rather than Google Ads, though, I'd change the recommendation—the best cheap stack is different.

If your goal is specifically monitoring competitors’ display + video ads for local-business clients, I’d look at AdClarity first, rather than a generic SEO competitor tool.

My picks

1. semrush.com — best overall for an agency

• Tracks display, video, and social competitor advertising.
• Lets you see creatives, publishers/placements, campaigns, estimated spend, impressions, and share of voice.
• You can filter by geography, which is particularly useful for local clients.
• Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. Semrush Semrush
• Big advantage: you can combine this with Semrush's SEO/PPC research and reporting, so it's easier to turn competitor intelligence into something you can put in a client report.
• adbeat.com — best if display is your primary concern

• Very strong for display, native, and video.
• Lets you investigate competitors' publishers, ad creatives, landing pages, networks, and campaigns.
• Has competitive monitoring and alerts for new campaigns. Adbeat
• I'd favor this if your clients are spending heavily on programmatic/display and you want deep placement intelligence.
• similarweb.com — best for broader competitive intelligence

• Covers search + display + social + video.
• Strong if you want to show clients the overall competitive advertising picture, including spend trends, channel mix, creatives, publishers, and share of voice. Similarweb Similarweb
• Probably more platform than you need if your sole job is "show me what my local competitors' ads look like."

What I'd choose for your agency

Start with Semrush + AdClarity.

The workflow I'd use for each local client would be:

Competitor → active ads → creative → placement/publisher → estimated spend → geography → first/last seen → landing page

That gives you much more useful intelligence than simply collecting screenshots. You can tell a client, for example:

"Competitor A has been running these three video creatives for 11 weeks, primarily across these publishers, while Competitor B has recently shifted budget into display."

AdClarity specifically supports competitor comparisons and filtering by geography/channel, and Semrush's documentation says its advertising toolkit can export reports to PDF/Excel—useful for agency reporting. Semrush

One caveat: don't treat estimated competitor spend as ground truth. These platforms model spend/impressions; they don't have access to a competitor's actual ad-account billing. Semrush explicitly notes that no tool can tell you exactly what a rival spends. Semrush

If you tell me roughly how many local clients you manage and what industries they're in (HVAC, dentists, attorneys, restaurants, etc.), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 platforms for your specific agency workflow and budget, including which ones are actually good at local geographic competitor monitoring.

If your main goal is monitoring competitors’ display + video ads for local-business clients, I’d recommend semrush.com with AdClarity as the best starting point.

My recommendation

1. Semrush + AdClarity — best fit for an agency

AdClarity is specifically built for competitive ad intelligence. It lets you research:

• Display ads and creatives
• Video ads
• Advertisers and campaigns
• Publishers and placements
• Estimated spend/impressions
• Share of voice
• Geography and device
• Historical activity
• Top-performing ads

Semrush says AdClarity can filter competitor intelligence by geography, which is particularly useful when you're dealing with local businesses. Semrush Semrush

The current Advertising Toolkit Pro plan is $220/month billed annually and includes AdClarity; the Base plan is $99/month but doesn't include the display/video competitor intelligence. Semrush Semrush

semrush.com

2. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — best if you want deeper media intelligence

similarweb.com is probably the platform I'd look at if you want something more sophisticated than basic "ad spying."

It covers display, video, search, native and other formats, and gives you information around creatives, publishers, campaigns and estimated spend. Similarweb Similarweb

The downside is that Similarweb is generally more of an enterprise/marketing-intelligence platform, so it can make less economic sense if you're managing a bunch of small local clients.

What I'd do in your situation

If you're an agency managing, say, 10–50 local businesses, I'd start with Semrush/AdClarity.

I'd build a recurring competitor-monitoring workflow like:

Client → 5–10 local competitors → AdClarity → monthly creative/placement report

For each competitor, track:

• 🖼️ New display creatives
• 🎥 New video creatives
• 📍 Where they're advertising
• 📅 How long an ad has been running
• 💰 Estimated spend
• 👀 Estimated impressions
• 🏆 Their most persistent/high-volume creatives
• 🔗 Landing pages
• 🎯 Geographic targeting where available

One important caveat: don't treat competitor spend estimates as ground truth, particularly for small local advertisers. These platforms are intelligence/estimation systems rather than access to the competitors' actual ad accounts. Semrush explicitly notes that its advertising numbers are benchmarks rather than exact competitor spend. Semrush

One other option I'd consider

If local/geographic accuracy is your #1 requirement, tell me roughly what kinds of clients you have (HVAC, dentists, lawyers, restaurants, home services, etc.) and how many clients you're managing.

I can compare AdClarity vs Similarweb vs SpyFu vs other ad-intelligence platforms specifically for local-market competitor monitoring, including which ones actually let you see the creative, placements, geography, historical ads, and video ads.

What I'd do in your situation

If you're an agency managing, say, 10–50 local businesses, I'd start with Semrush/AdClarity.

I'd build a recurring competitor-monitoring workflow like:

Client → 5–10 local competitors → AdClarity → monthly creative/placement report

For each competitor, track:

For a growing ecommerce brand, I’d avoid buying a single “spy tool” and instead build a small stack around three questions:

1. What ads are competitors running? (creative, hooks, offers, angles)
2. Where is their traffic coming from? (Meta, TikTok, Google, affiliates, influencers)
3. What happens after the click? (landing pages, funnels, CRO patterns)

A strong setup:

contentmavericks.comwww.primespy.net

My recommended stack by company stage

$0–$500/month (early growth)

• Meta Ads Library (free) for competitor ads
• Similarweb for traffic estimates
• BuiltWith/Wappalyzer for tech stack detection
• Manual landing page teardown in a spreadsheet
• Hotjar/Clarity on your own site

Good enough to identify:

• top competitor offers
• ad angles
• landing page structures
• funnel patterns

$500–$2,000/month (serious DTC growth team)

• Similarweb → “where is their traffic coming from?”
• Minea or BigSpy → “what creatives are they testing?”
• Semrush → “what paid search is working?”
• Foreplay → “how do we turn research into creative production?”

This is probably the sweet spot for a growing ecommerce brand. contentmavericks.comwww.primespy.net

Enterprise

• Pathmatics by Sensor Tower
• Similarweb enterprise
• Adbeat
• Crayon/Klue-style competitive intelligence platforms

These are better when you have many competitors, multiple markets, and a dedicated marketing intelligence function. www.g2.com

What I would actually do weekly

For each top 10 competitor:

Ads

• Save their newest 20–50 ads
• Tag:
  • hook (“problem,” “desire,” “social proof,” “discount”)
  • format (UGC, founder, demo, testimonial)
  • offer
  • CTA
  • emotional trigger

Landing pages
Track:

• headline
• above-the-fold promise
• product images
• reviews/social proof
• guarantee
• subscription vs one-time purchase
• bundles
• upsells
• quiz/funnel steps

Traffic
Monitor:

• paid search keywords
• social platforms
• influencer/referral traffic
• seasonal changes

If I had to pick only 3 tools for an ecommerce brand:

1. Similarweb → understand competitor acquisition strategy
2. Minea or BigSpy → understand competitor creative strategy
3. Semrush → understand paid search + SEO strategy

That combination gives you the closest thing to a competitor “growth dashboard” without paying enterprise prices. contentmavericks.com

One caveat: no tool can reliably tell you a competitor’s true CPA, ROAS, or exact spend. Treat ad longevity, frequency, traffic estimates, and creative repetition as signals rather than ground truth. selzee.com

For your specific use case, I’d shortlist Semrush and SpyFu, with SpyFu probably the better fit if competitor ad-copy history is a major requirement.

My pick: SpyFu

spyfu.com is unusually focused on exactly what you're asking for. It estimates competitors' paid keywords, clicks and ad spend, and lets you track budget changes over time. SpyFu SpyFu Help Center

Its Ad History is the standout feature: you can see historical ad variants, when they appeared, which keywords they were associated with, and how competitors' messaging evolved. SpyFu says its archive extends back roughly 20 years. SpyFu SpyFu Help Center

When I'd choose Semrush instead

semrush.com is the better choice if your team already uses Semrush or you want PPC intelligence alongside SEO, keyword gap analysis, and broader competitive research.

Its Advertising Research reports provide paid keywords, estimated paid traffic, Traffic Cost/spend estimates, position changes, and competitor ad copy. Semrush Semrush Semrush also explicitly supports keyword-level spend estimates through its Positions report. Semrush

For a mid-market retailer, I'd start with SpyFu if the primary question is “What are my competitors spending and what messages are they changing?” If the requirement is more broadly “build a competitive search-intelligence stack,” I'd lean Semrush.

One caveat: neither tool can know a competitor's actual Google Ads spend. These are modeled estimates based on observed keywords, rankings/positions, traffic and CPC data, so I'd use them for relative trends and competitive intensity, rather than treating the dollar figures as audited budgets.

For your use case, I’d shortlist Semrush and SpyFu, with Semrush as the better overall fit for a mid-market retailer.

My pick: Semrush

semrush.com is particularly well suited if you need to answer questions like:

• “How much more aggressively is Competitor A bidding?” Semrush provides estimated monthly spend/“Traffic Cost,” including estimates at individual keyword level. Semrush Semrush
• “What keywords did they start or stop buying?” Its Position Changes report identifies new/lost paid keywords and changes in paid-search positions. Semrush
• “What messaging are they using?” Ad Copies shows their actual headlines, descriptions, display URLs and landing pages. Semrush
• “When did their messaging change?” Ads History provides a month-by-month view of ads and keyword activity; the current report covers 12 months. Semrush

When I'd choose SpyFu instead

spyfu.com is arguably stronger if historical competitive analysis is the main requirement. It tracks competitor PPC budgets, clicks, keyword counts and ads over time, while its Ad History provides a much deeper historical archive of competitor ad variations. SpyFu SpyFu

So, for a retailer, I'd use Semrush for ongoing competitive monitoring and budget/keyword benchmarking, and consider SpyFu if you particularly care about reconstructing competitors' historical promotions, messaging tests, and keyword behavior.

One caveat: neither tool can see a competitor's actual Google Ads budget. Treat “spend” as a modeled estimate, not financial disclosure; actual spend can differ substantially because of bids, impression share, match types, geo/device targeting, and Google auction dynamics.

For international campaigns, you’ll usually want a competitive ad intelligence platform rather than a simple ad library. The strongest options differ depending on whether you care most about creative monitoring, spend estimates, paid search, social ads, mobile apps, or localization by country/language.

Here are the platforms I’d shortlist:

For a multinational advertiser, I’d typically evaluate:

1. Creative intelligence

Can it collect:

• Facebook/Instagram/TikTok/YouTube creatives
• Display banners
• Video ads
• Native ads
• Landing pages
• Historical versions of ads

2. Localization capability

Check whether it supports:

• Country filters (e.g., Germany vs France vs Japan)
• Local-language ad copy
• Regional publishers
• Currency/spend estimates
• Different consumer segments

3. Alerting

Look for:

• “Competitor launched a new campaign”
• “Competitor increased spend”
• “New creative detected”
• “New keyword bidding activity”

My practical picks by use case

• Global CPG / retail / enterprise brand: Sensor Tower Pathmatics + Similarweb
• Heavy display/native advertising markets: Adbeat
• Paid search competitive research: Similarweb + a PPC-focused tool
• Mobile apps/gaming: Sensor Tower
• Agency managing many clients: Similarweb or Sensor Tower because reporting workflows matter

One caveat: no tool has perfect coverage across every country and language. For markets like China, Korea, Japan, LATAM, or specific regional ad networks, you may need a combination of a global platform plus local intelligence sources.

If you tell me:

1. your main channels (Meta, Google, TikTok, programmatic, Amazon, etc.),
2. number of countries, and
3. whether you need creative monitoring vs spend estimates vs alerts,

I can narrow this to a 2–3 vendor shortlist.

Yes. If you’re running campaigns across multiple countries and languages, I’d avoid choosing a tool based simply on “ad spy” volume. The important questions are: country-level coverage, historical creative, platform coverage, alerts, localization, and whether the data is first-party or estimated.

My shortlist

Semrush is particularly interesting for your use case because its Advertising Research explicitly supports 100+ country databases and 20+ languages, with historical paid-search data going back to 2012. Semrush Semrush

Similarweb is the stronger choice if you want to move beyond search into a broader picture of competitors' search, display, social and other paid channels, including publishers, platforms, creatives and estimated spend/impressions. Similarweb Knowledge Center

AdSpyder is worth testing if your priority is one cross-platform dashboard: it currently claims 15+ platforms and 100+ countries, with country, platform, date and creative filtering. AdSpyder

What I'd actually use

For a serious international campaign operation, I'd use a two-layer setup:

1. Similarweb or Semrush as the strategic intelligence layer.

• Competitor activity by country
• Paid-search competitors
• Keywords
• Historical trends
• Estimated investment/channel mix
• Market-level comparisons
• Platform-native libraries as the verification layer.

• Meta Ad Library
• Google Ads Transparency Center
• TikTok Creative Center
• LinkedIn's ad library

This matters because third-party tools estimate things like spend and performance. The platform libraries are much better for answering the simpler question: “Is this competitor actually running this ad in this market?” Ad Library Checker WhatWins

For multilingual campaigns, I'd prioritize these capabilities

Don't just ask vendors how many countries they “cover.” Test them with, say, US + UK + Germany + France + Japan + Brazil + Saudi Arabia and see whether you can retrieve:

• The same competitor's ads separately by country
• Localized versions rather than just translated metadata
• Native-language ad copy
• Creative/video variants
• Landing pages associated with each ad
• Historical ads, not just currently active ones
• First-seen/last-seen dates
• Alerts when a competitor launches or changes an ad
• Search ads and social/display ads
• Country-specific keyword data
• Country-specific estimated spend

That last point is particularly important: “global coverage” doesn't necessarily mean equal-quality data in every market.

My recommendation

If you're an agency or multinational marketing team, I'd shortlist Similarweb + Semrush + AdSpyder and run a 1–2 week bake-off using 10–20 real competitors across your most important countries.

If your biggest problem is “tell me whenever competitors launch/change ads in any of our markets”, I'd weight alerting and historical creative capture more heavily than SEO/PPC functionality.

If you tell me which countries/languages and which platforms you care about (Meta, Google, TikTok, LinkedIn, display, etc.), I can narrow this to the best 2–3 options and compare their international coverage, monitoring/alerting, historical data, and approximate pricing.

For a boutique agency pitching new clients, the strongest fits are tools that can turn competitor research into a polished pitch-ready audit deck: competitor creatives/screenshots, messaging analysis, channel mix, and spend estimates. A few good options:

My shortlist for a boutique agency:

1. AdClarity — best “wow factor” for a new-business pitch where you want to say: “Here’s what your competitors are spending, where they’re showing up, and what creative they’re using.” BIScience Insights
2. AdScanner.Ai — better if your pitches are mostly Meta/TikTok/YouTube creative strategy and you need fast teardown reports. AdScanner.Ai
3. MediaRadar — good for higher-value B2B or enterprise prospects where competitive media activity matters. MediaRadar

One caveat: commercial ad spend estimates are modeled estimates, not usually exact competitor budgets (except in some verified-spend datasets). Treat them as directional benchmarks rather than audited financial figures. AdEye

For a boutique agency, I’d usually optimize for report quality and speed-to-pitch, not the biggest database. A tool that lets you produce a 10–20 page branded competitive audit in a few hours often creates more sales value than a massive enterprise dashboard.

If your priority is client-ready reports that show competitor spend + top ads/creatives, I’d shortlist these:

My pick: Adbeat

For an agency owner, Adbeat is probably the closest match to exactly what you're describing. It combines estimated competitor ad spend, top creatives, landing pages, publishers/placements, competitive comparisons, and presentation-ready reporting. Reports can be exported as CSV, PDF, and PowerPoint, and its Enterprise tier adds private-label reports. www.adbeat.com

Adbeat for Agencies

If you need Meta + Google + broader channels: Similarweb

Similarweb Ad Intelligence is more compelling if your client reports need to span search, display, social, and other paid channels. It provides estimated spend, impressions, campaigns, actual creatives, landing pages, and top-performing ads; exports include PDF and Excel depending on the report. support.similarweb.com

Similarweb Ad Intelligence

If spend benchmarking is the centerpiece: Pathmatics

Pathmatics, now under Sensor Tower, is worth considering for larger agencies. It provides estimated spend/impressions across social, display, video and mobile, with coverage including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest and Reddit. Exports can include creatives, spend tables, top advertisers and publisher rankings in PDF/CSV. sensortower.com

Pathmatics / Sensor Tower

Bottom line:

• Best overall for agency client reports: Adbeat
• Best broad cross-channel option: Similarweb
• Best enterprise spend intelligence: Pathmatics
• Best if you're already a Semrush agency: Semrush
• Best for a polished Meta creative teardown: Mako Metrics

One important caveat: competitor “spend” is modeled/estimated, not their actual account spend. Similarweb explicitly describes its spend figures as modeled estimates, while Adbeat provides estimated spend. support.similarweb.com

If you tell me whether your clients are primarily Meta, Google Ads, or both, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 platforms for an agency and compare pricing, white-labeling, and report quality.

If your priority is client-ready competitive reports that show estimated competitor spend + top-performing ads/creatives, I’d put Adbeat at the top.

My ranking for an agency

1. adbeat.com — best fit for your exact use case

• Estimated competitor ad spend
• Top Ads with creatives, flight dates, publishers and landing pages
• Competitive comparisons and share-of-voice views
• Reports export as PDF, CSV, and presentation-ready PowerPoint
• Specifically positioned for agencies and client services. Adbeat Adbeat Adbeat
• The big caveat: Adbeat is strongest for display/native advertising, rather than being a comprehensive Google/Meta competitor-spend tool. Its Enterprise tier is where estimated advertiser spend is explicitly included. Adbeat
• semrush.com — best all-around agency platform

• Excellent for Google Ads competitor research: keywords, ads, competitors, estimated costs and historical activity.
• Advertising Research can be incorporated into My Reports, and competitor tables can be exported to CSV, Excel and PDF. Semrush Semrush
• Its AdClarity component adds display/social competitive intelligence, including estimated expenditure and a Top Ads view. Semrush
• Better choice if your agency needs competitor research alongside SEO, PPC and reporting—not just ad intelligence.
• AdClarity / Semrush Advertising Toolkit — best if you need cross-channel

• Particularly useful for seeing competitors' display, video and social advertising, estimated expenditure and top ads. Semrush
• I'd favor this over a pure PPC tool if your clients ask, "What are our competitors actually running across the web?"

The important distinction

If by "competitor spend" you mean actual/estimated dollars competitors are spending on ads, no platform can know their exact spend unless it has access to their accounts. These tools provide estimates, so I would label the metric "Estimated Competitor Spend" in client reports.

For an agency, I'd choose:

• Adbeat → if your deliverable is primarily competitor ads + spend + creative intelligence
• Semrush → if you want a broader agency stack with SEO, PPC, competitor research and client reporting
• AdClarity → if cross-channel display/social intelligence is the key requirement

If you tell me whether you're mainly running Google, Meta, TikTok, or display/native, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 platforms specifically for your agency and compare pricing, report quality, competitor-spend accuracy, and white-labeling.

Yes. If your goal is one competitive-research dashboard that connects ads → landing pages → estimated spend across search and social, the strongest fit is Similarweb Ad Intelligence.

Best fits

Similarweb is the closest match to your description. Its Ad Intelligence product explicitly covers search, social, display and video, while connecting competitor ads to creatives, landing pages and spend trends. Similarweb Similarweb

Its Paid Landing Page Analyzer goes a step further: you can see competitors' highest-traffic paid landing pages, the ads/keywords sending traffic there, and estimated CPC spend associated with those URLs. Similarweb Similarweb

similarweb.com

Where Semrush fits

Semrush is probably the better choice if your research is primarily Google Search/PPC. Its Advertising Research combines competitor keywords, live/historical ads, landing pages, traffic and estimated "Traffic Cost." It also has an Advertising Toolkit covering Google, Shopping and Meta, with AdClarity adding deeper display/video/social intelligence on higher-tier plans. Semrush Semrush Semrush

semrush.com

My recommendation

If you're building a competitive intelligence workflow, I'd rank them:

1. Similarweb — best single pane of glass for search + social/display + landing pages + spend
2. Semrush — best if Google Search/PPC is the center of gravity
3. Adbeat — best if you're especially interested in display creatives and the landing pages behind them
4. SpyFu — best lower-cost option for Google Ads competitor research

One important caveat: "estimated spend" is modeled, not a competitor's actual media budget. For example, Similarweb says its PPC-spend estimate is derived from paid-search visits, paid keywords and CPC data. Similarweb

If you tell me whether you're researching B2B SaaS, ecommerce, DTC, agencies, or another category, I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools that actually make sense and compare pricing, social coverage, ad-library depth, landing-page capture, and spend accuracy.

similarweb.com

Where Semrush fits

Semrush is probably the better choice if your research is primarily Google Search/PPC. Its Advertising Research combines competitor keywords, live/historical ads, landing pages, traffic and estimated "Traffic Cost." It also has an Advertising Toolkit covering Google, Shopping and Meta, with AdClarity adding deeper display/video/social intelligence on higher-tier plans.

If you mean one competitive-intelligence dashboard that ties together competitor ads → landing pages → estimated spend across search/social, the strongest fit right now is Similarweb.

Best fits

*Similarweb's current Ad Intelligence positioning covers search, display and social; its documentation says social expansion is being rolled out, with Meta as an initial network. Similarweb Similarweb

Why I'd start with Similarweb

Its Ad Intelligence is unusually close to your requested workflow: you can see competitor campaigns, actual creatives, landing pages, publishers, impressions and estimated spend, with cross-channel views spanning search, display and social. Similarweb Similarweb

Its Paid Landing Page Analyzer also connects the landing-page URL to paid traffic, keywords, ad strategy and estimated CPC spend, so you don't have to manually stitch an ad-spy tool to a separate website-analysis tool. Similarweb Similarweb

And its Advertiser Activity view is specifically designed to consolidate an advertiser's spend, impressions, visits and campaign activity across channels. The estimates are modeled/sampled rather than actual advertiser financials, so I'd treat spend as directional rather than literal. Similarweb

Interesting current addition: Similarweb launched AI Ads in August 2026, adding visibility into ads appearing in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews, including the actual creative and destination landing page. Similarweb

When I'd choose Semrush instead

semrush.com is probably better if your competitive research is primarily Google Search/Shopping + SEO. Its Advertising Research gives you competitor ads, paid keywords, historical activity, landing pages and estimated traffic cost/spend. semrush.com semrush.com

So, in shorthand:

Need a cross-channel "what are they running, where does it go, and roughly how much are they spending?" dashboard → Similarweb.

Need a deeper PPC/SEO research workstation → Semrush.

If you tell me whether you're researching B2B SaaS, ecommerce, consumer apps, or agencies, I can narrow this down to the 3–5 tools that are actually worth evaluating for that use case.